In his book Liberalism, Black Power, and the Making of American Politics, 1965-1980, author Devin Fergus returns to the tumultuous era of Johnson, Nixon, Carter, and Helms and challenges us to see familiar political developments through a new lens.

Focusing especially on North Carolina, Fergus reveals how liberal engagement helped to bring a radical civic ideology back from the brink of political violence and social nihilism.

Author Devin Fergus will speak Nov. 2 at Wilson Library

He covers Malcolm X Liberation University and Soul City, two largely forgotten, federally funded black nationalist experiments in North Carolina, and the political scene in Winston-Salem, where Black Panthers were elected to office in surprising numbers.

Fergus is assistant professor of modern United States and African American history at Vanderbilt University. In 2007, he was a Fellow of the Southern Historical Collection, and his book draws upon research conducted at UNC.